MAOISTS’ ABUJMARH BASE WITHIN STRIKING RANGE OF SECURITY FORCES

The security forces manning the forest zones of Chhattisgarh have gained an upper hand over the Maoists for the first time in recent years. Abujmarh forest’s inaccessible hideouts that are strong Maoist bastions have come under the striking range of the paramilitary forces specialising in guerrilla warfare. This is the impression that police forces have gathered after the Maoist-sponsored one-day bandh, protesting the series of encounters in Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh in the last two weeks, ended on Friday. Sources in Telangana Greyhounds in Hyderabad, who reviewed the situation in the border districts of Chhattisgarh, told The Sunday Guardian that the bandh did not have any impact on life on the ground.

The Maoists, who lost around 50 of their comrades in the encounters in Gadchiroli of Maharashtra and Bijapur and Sukma districts of Chhattisgarh from 20 April onwards, gave a bandh call in both the states as well as in surrounding Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Madhya Pradesh. The Maoists issued media releases seeking public support for the bandh. Usually, Maoistsponsored bandhs are accompanied with large-scale violence and destruction of property in their strongholds and disruption of public life. This time, the governments of Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh and Telangana cancelled bus services in the border areas and shut down schools. At the same time, security forces, mostly CRPF battalions, were rushed to the interiors.

On Thursday, CRPF forces in Chhattisgarh staged two major encounters, killing three Maoist militia men— Joga (32) and Mukalu (29)